Working Parent's Guide to Weekend Fun

With busy weekdays eating up precious time together, weekends may be the only time your family has a chance to reconnect. Here's how to make the most of your weekend time — and how to prevent those unavoidable errands from turning Saturdays and Sundays into all work (and no play) days:

Complete a few critical chores during the week, and come Saturday morning you'll both have breathing room and be grateful for it.


Tackle some tasks during the week
* Schedule certain tasks to occur on certain days every week.
Jonathan Yackel, a computer science professor in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and father to three young children, does the weekly grocery shopping for the family on his way home from work every Monday. "I do it by myself, so it's a lot faster than doing it with the kids," he says. He gets home later on Mondays as a result, but it frees him and his wife Lisa, a veterinarian, from having to fit this task into the weekend.

* Take advantage of delivery services. Consider having your groceries delivered to you during the week. It costs a bit more, but it may be worth it, depending on how much time grocery shopping takes each week. Many supermarkets have a Web site where you can place your order — some exclusively Web-based services are available. Also consider taking advantage of locally owned farms that deliver fresh, often organic produce to your doorstep each week or every other week.

* Work the Web. In addition to ordering groceries online, you can take care of a number of tasks and errands from the comfort of your desk chair, including consolidating and paying all your bills; banking; ordering drugstore items; and keeping an electronic calendar with e-mail reminders. Typing in a key word in a search engine will pull up a number of options.



Involve kids in weekend chores
Chores that must get done on the weekends can, with a little incentive, get done with your child in tow. Even young kids can play a significant role in keeping the household running. Your young child can toss things into the washing machine with you; a preschooler can help pair up clean socks.

"Family time doing household activities is important," says Joan Wenters, clinical and developmental psychologist at Children's Hospital in Oakland, California. "Children need to learn that this is part of life and they need to grow up learning the skills to manage a household. As for the parents, if chores are joint projects with the kids, the weekend doesn't have to be so much of an either/or proposition."

The key to success here is limiting the number of tasks on a given day and building in some kid fun. Going to the dry cleaners where they get a lollipop won't seem like a chore to your child. Neither will picking up a few things at the corner market if they know they'll be able to choose a treat or get to peek in the pet store window afterward.


Set a weekend agenda
Each week on a specific day (like Wednesday), check in with your spouse about the upcoming weekend to avoid miscommunications and unrealistic expectations, both of which can eat up precious time. Review scheduled appointments or activities (Saturday morning haircut, Saturday night dinner party, Sunday afternoon birthday party your child will be attending on Sunday), and talk about what else would be nice to fit in, such as a bike ride, cleaning out the garage, or taking your child to the library.

Make sure you're both clear on details like confirming with the sitter, directions to dinner, which of you is going to shop for and wrap the birthday child's gift and take your child to the party, and the library's weekend hours. Better yet, post a large wall calendar in the kitchen and be sure to fill in appointments, social dates, and children's activities where everyone can see them — and know what to expect.


Establish weekend family rituals
Do something every weekend that involves the entire family. This can be challenging if one parent has to work weekends or you have kids of different ages and interests, but the payoff goes beyond just developing an archive of family memories. Getting children used to family activities also helps in raising cooperative kids.

"It's important to develop the expectation that you do things as a family — that certain times are family time," says Wenters. And part of family time involves a little compromise. "Kids also need to learn that you don't always get to do your first-choice thing," she adds. Wenters recommends giving kids input on what the family activities will be.

"Offer several different activities, or rotate who gets to choose — one child this time, the other child next time, then maybe Mom or Dad's turn." Or have each family member write down three activities on separate slips of paper and put them all into a family fun jar. When you're stumped for ideas or can't agree on what to do, someone chooses randomly from the jar.

Establishing family rituals needn't be an exercise in rigidity. Often, activities you already do as a family, or even the downtime you spend together, if done routinely, can constitute a family ritual. Some possibilities:

Attend religious services. Aside from the spiritual and community benefits of belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque, busy families may also find this becomes their principal and most reliable weekly group activity.

Make mealtimes special. The Yackels have a weekly Friday night dinner out, alternating among the inexpensive family-friendly eateries in their area. Another nice tradition to build into a hectic schedule is a leisurely Saturday or Sunday breakfast. After a week of cold cereal and bagels wolfed down in the car, it's a special treat to be able to make and enjoy a plate of homemade French toast or pancakes in the shapes of animals or letters. Preschoolers can help out too — measuring flour, stirring the batter — which makes the preparation part of the ritual.

Settle in for some screen time. A family movie night is always a hit. Rent a family video, serve up some popcorn, and get cozy together. Or make Fridays dinner-and-a-movie night: Order pizza and have it in front of the TV while you all watch a video — the sillier the better.


Have a few fun activities ready to go
What do you do when it's 3 o'clock on a cloudy Sunday afternoon and your kids are in the grip of cabin fever? Here are some options:

Take advantage of local happenings. Memberships to your local zoo, science museum, or children's museum will pay for themselves. Keep notes about special local events in a handy place like the kitchen bulletin board. "Hey, if we leave right now we'll catch the penguin-feeding at the zoo!" can get even the grumpiest kid moving. Need ideas? Consider these options for great day trips .

Do an art project. Choose a corner of the kids' playroom, the kitchen table, or a section of the basement, and lay down a drop cloth or old sheet to protect the floors. Line up a variety of crayons, markers, paints, clay, glue, beads, buttons, and paper, and let the kids loose. Or suggest a specific project, like decorating a "treasure" box with photos cut out of magazines or making play food out of Sculpey or Fimo clay, which you can then bake in the oven until it hardens.

Have fun for all ages. For families with children of different ages, develop projects that include age-specific tasks for everyone, like a family scrapbook: A preschooler can sort pictures, while an older sibling can glue them on the pages, and you can write the captions. Or break out the video camera and make a family movie or your own music video — younger children can star in the film, while older ones can direct or operate the camera.


Schedule downtime
Having at least one weekend morning free of any scheduled activities is important for both relaxation and nurturing a young child's imagination. In this age of over-scheduling, kids get less and less time to just let their minds wander, explore their surroundings, kick a ball, or create their own arts and crafts projects free of adult supervision.

Of course, downtime is just as important for the grown-ups as it is for the kids. So, even if your children are happily coloring away in the playroom, avoid the temptation to try to squeeze in one more chore while they're occupied. Some of the most relaxing and enjoyable family moments are those in which family members are together, but engaged in their own activities — Mom and Dad reading the newspaper next to a child contentedly drawing a picture. But downtime doesn't just happen on its own; you have to make room for it on your schedule.

Your child will come to expect weekends that are great — not just because Mom and Dad are more available to them, but because they get unfettered time to make their own fun.



Source: Parentcenter.com